man/cat1p/cksum.1p.txt
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cksum(P) cksum(P)
NAME cksum - write file checksums and sizes SYNOPSIS cksum [file ...] DESCRIPTION The cksum utility shall calculate and write to standard output a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) for each input file, and also write to standard output the number of octets in each file. The CRC used is based on the poly- nomial used for CRC error checking in the ISO/IEC 8802-3:1996 standard (Ethernet). The encoding for the CRC checksum is defined by the gen- erating polynomial: G(x)=x+x+x+x+x+x+x+x+x+x+x+x+x+x+1 Mathematically, the CRC value corresponding to a given file shall be defined by the following procedure: The n bits to be evaluated are considered to be the coefficients of a mod 2 polynomial M( x) of degree n-1. These n bits are the bits from the file, with the most significant bit being the most significant bit of the first octet of the file and the last bit being the least significant bit of the last octet, padded with zero bits (if necessary) to achieve an integral number of octets, followed by one or more octets representing the length of the file as a binary value, least significant octet first. The smallest number of octets capable of repre- senting this integer shall be used. M( x) is multiplied by x (that is, shifted left 32 bits) and divided by G( x) using mod 2 division, producing a remainder R( x) of degree <= 31. The coefficients of R( x) are considered to be a 32-bit sequence. The bit sequence is complemented and the result is the CRC. OPTIONS None. OPERANDS The following operand shall be supported: file A pathname of a file to be checked. If no file operands are specified, the standard input shall be used. STDIN The standard input shall be used only if no file oper- ands are specified. See the INPUT FILES section. INPUT FILES The input files can be any file type. ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES The following environment variables shall affect the execution of cksum: LANG Provide a default value for the internationaliza- tion variables that are unset or null. (See the Base Definitions volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 8.2, Internationalization Variables for the precedence of internationalization variables used to determine the values of locale cate- gories.) LC_ALL If set to a non-empty string value, override the values of all the other internationalization variables. LC_CTYPE Determine the locale for the interpretation of sequences of bytes of text data as characters (for example, single-byte as opposed to multi- byte characters in arguments). LC_MESSAGES Determine the locale that should be used to affect the format and contents of diagnostic mes- sages written to standard error. NLSPATH Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing of LC_MESSAGES . ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS Default. STDOUT For each file processed successfully, the cksum utility shall write in the following format: "%u %d %s\n", <checksum>, <# of octets>, <pathname> If no file operand was specified, the pathname and its leading <space> shall be omitted. STDERR The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages. OUTPUT FILES None. EXTENDED DESCRIPTION None. EXIT STATUS The following exit values shall be returned: 0 All files were processed successfully. >0 An error occurred. CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS Default. The following sections are informative. APPLICATION USAGE The cksum utility is typically used to quickly compare a suspect file against a trusted version of the same, such as to ensure that files transmitted over noisy media arrive intact. However, this comparison cannot be con- sidered cryptographically secure. The chances of a dam- aged file producing the same CRC as the original are small; deliberate deception is difficult, but probably not impossible. Although input files to cksum can be any type, the results need not be what would be expected on character special device files or on file types not described by the System Interfaces volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001. Since this volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 does not spec- ify the block size used when doing input, checksums of character special files need not process all of the data in those files. The algorithm is expressed in terms of a bitstream divided into octets. If a file is transmitted between two systems and undergoes any data transformation (such as changing little-endian byte ordering to big-endian), identical CRC values cannot be expected. Implementations performing such transformations may extend cksum to han- dle such situations. EXAMPLES None. RATIONALE The following C-language program can be used as a model to describe the algorithm. It assumes that a char is one octet. It also assumes that the entire file is avail- able for one pass through the function. This was done for simplicity in demonstrating the algorithm, rather than as an implementation model. static unsigned long crctab[] = { 0x00000000, 0x04c11db7, 0x09823b6e, 0x0d4326d9, 0x130476dc, 0x17c56b6b, 0x1a864db2, 0x1e475005, 0x2608edb8, 0x22c9f00f, 0x2f8ad6d6, 0x2b4bcb61, 0x350c9b64, 0x31cd86d3, 0x3c8ea00a, 0x384fbdbd, 0x4c11db70, 0x48d0c6c7, 0x4593e01e, 0x4152fda9, 0x5f15adac, 0x5bd4b01b, 0x569796c2, 0x52568b75, 0x6a1936c8, 0x6ed82b7f, 0x639b0da6, 0x675a1011, 0x791d4014, 0x7ddc5da3, 0x709f7b7a, 0x745e66cd, 0x9823b6e0, 0x9ce2ab57, 0x91a18d8e, 0x95609039, 0x8b27c03c, 0x8fe6dd8b, 0x82a5fb52, 0x8664e6e5, 0xbe2b5b58, 0xbaea46ef, 0xb7a96036, 0xb3687d81, 0xad2f2d84, 0xa9ee3033, 0xa4ad16ea, 0xa06c0b5d, 0xd4326d90, 0xd0f37027, 0xddb056fe, 0xd9714b49, 0xc7361b4c, 0xc3f706fb, 0xceb42022, 0xca753d95, 0xf23a8028, 0xf6fb9d9f, 0xfbb8bb46, 0xff79a6f1, 0xe13ef6f4, 0xe5ffeb43, 0xe8bccd9a, 0xec7dd02d, 0x34867077, 0x30476dc0, 0x3d044b19, 0x39c556ae, 0x278206ab, 0x23431b1c, 0x2e003dc5, 0x2ac12072, 0x128e9dcf, 0x164f8078, 0x1b0ca6a1, 0x1fcdbb16, 0x018aeb13, 0x054bf6a4, 0x0808d07d, 0x0cc9cdca, 0x7897ab07, 0x7c56b6b0, 0x71159069, 0x75d48dde, 0x6b93dddb, 0x6f52c06c, 0x6211e6b5, 0x66d0fb02, 0x5e9f46bf, 0x5a5e5b08, 0x571d7dd1, 0x53dc6066, 0x4d9b3063, 0x495a2dd4, 0x44190b0d, 0x40d816ba, 0xaca5c697, 0xa864db20, 0xa527fdf9, 0xa1e6e04e, 0xbfa1b04b, 0xbb60adfc, 0xb6238b25, 0xb2e29692, 0x8aad2b2f, 0x8e6c3698, 0x832f1041, 0x87ee0df6, 0x99a95df3, 0x9d684044, 0x902b669d, 0x94ea7b2a, 0xe0b41de7, 0xe4750050, 0xe9362689, 0xedf73b3e, 0xf3b06b3b, 0xf771768c, 0xfa325055, 0xfef34de2, 0xc6bcf05f, 0xc27dede8, 0xcf3ecb31, 0xcbffd686, 0xd5b88683, 0xd1799b34, 0xdc3abded, 0xd8fba05a, 0x690ce0ee, 0x6dcdfd59, 0x608edb80, 0x644fc637, 0x7a089632, 0x7ec98b85, 0x738aad5c, 0x774bb0eb, 0x4f040d56, 0x4bc510e1, 0x46863638, 0x42472b8f, 0x5c007b8a, 0x58c1663d, 0x558240e4, 0x51435d53, 0x251d3b9e, 0x21dc2629, 0x2c9f00f0, 0x285e1d47, 0x36194d42, 0x32d850f5, 0x3f9b762c, 0x3b5a6b9b, 0x0315d626, 0x07d4cb91, 0x0a97ed48, 0x0e56f0ff, 0x1011a0fa, 0x14d0bd4d, 0x19939b94, 0x1d528623, 0xf12f560e, 0xf5ee4bb9, 0xf8ad6d60, 0xfc6c70d7, 0xe22b20d2, 0xe6ea3d65, 0xeba91bbc, 0xef68060b, 0xd727bbb6, 0xd3e6a601, 0xdea580d8, 0xda649d6f, 0xc423cd6a, 0xc0e2d0dd, 0xcda1f604, 0xc960ebb3, 0xbd3e8d7e, 0xb9ff90c9, 0xb4bcb610, 0xb07daba7, 0xae3afba2, 0xaafbe615, 0xa7b8c0cc, 0xa379dd7b, 0x9b3660c6, 0x9ff77d71, 0x92b45ba8, 0x9675461f, 0x8832161a, 0x8cf30bad, 0x81b02d74, 0x857130c3, 0x5d8a9099, 0x594b8d2e, 0x5408abf7, 0x50c9b640, 0x4e8ee645, 0x4a4ffbf2, 0x470cdd2b, 0x43cdc09c, 0x7b827d21, 0x7f436096, 0x7200464f, 0x76c15bf8, 0x68860bfd, 0x6c47164a, 0x61043093, 0x65c52d24, 0x119b4be9, 0x155a565e, 0x18197087, 0x1cd86d30, 0x029f3d35, 0x065e2082, 0x0b1d065b, 0x0fdc1bec, 0x3793a651, 0x3352bbe6, 0x3e119d3f, 0x3ad08088, 0x2497d08d, 0x2056cd3a, 0x2d15ebe3, 0x29d4f654, 0xc5a92679, 0xc1683bce, 0xcc2b1d17, 0xc8ea00a0, 0xd6ad50a5, 0xd26c4d12, 0xdf2f6bcb, 0xdbee767c, 0xe3a1cbc1, 0xe760d676, 0xea23f0af, 0xeee2ed18, 0xf0a5bd1d, 0xf464a0aa, 0xf9278673, 0xfde69bc4, 0x89b8fd09, 0x8d79e0be, 0x803ac667, 0x84fbdbd0, 0x9abc8bd5, 0x9e7d9662, 0x933eb0bb, 0x97ffad0c, 0xafb010b1, 0xab710d06, 0xa6322bdf, 0xa2f33668, 0xbcb4666d, 0xb8757bda, 0xb5365d03, 0xb1f740b4 }; unsigned long memcrc(const unsigned char *b, size_t n) { /* Input arguments: * const char* b == byte sequence to checksum * size_t n == length of sequence */ register unsigned i, c, s = 0; for (i = n; i > 0; --i) { c = (unsigned)(*b++); s = (s << 8) ^ crctab[(s >> 24) ^ c]; } /* Extend with the length of the string. */ while (n != 0) { c = n & 0377; n >>= 8; s = (s << 8) ^ crctab[(s >> 24) ^ c]; } return ~s; } The historical practice of writing the number of "blocks" has been changed to writing the number of octets, since the latter is not only more useful, but also since historical implementations have not been con- sistent in defining what a "block" meant. Octets are used instead of bytes because bytes can differ in size between systems. The algorithm used was selected to increase the opera- tional robustness of cksum. Neither the System V nor BSD sum algorithm was selected. Since each of these was dif- ferent and each was the default behavior on those sys- tems, no realistic compromise was available if either were selected-some set of historical applications would break. Therefore, the name was changed to cksum. Although the historical sum commands will probably con- tinue to be provided for many years, programs designed for portability across systems should use the new name. The algorithm selected is based on that used by the ISO/IEC 8802-3:1996 standard (Ethernet) for the frame check sequence field. The algorithm used does not match the technical definition of a checksum; the term is used for historical reasons. The length of the file is included in the CRC calculation because this parallels inclusion of a length field by Ethernet in its CRC, but also because it guards against inadvertent collisions between files that begin with different series of zero octets. The chance that two different files produce identical CRCs is much greater when their lengths are not considered. Keeping the length and the checksum of the file itself separate would yield a slightly more robust algorithm, but historical usage has always been that a single number (the checksum as printed) repre- sents the signature of the file. It was decided that historical usage was the more important consideration. Early proposals contained modifications to the Ethernet algorithm that involved extracting table values whenever an intermediate result became zero. This was demon- strated to be less robust than the current method and mathematically difficult to describe or justify. The calculation used is identical to that given in pseudo-code in the referenced Sarwate article. The pseudo-code rendition is: X <- 0; Y <- 0; for i <- m -1 step -1 until 0 do begin T <- X(1) ^ A[i]; X(1) <- X(0); X(0) <- Y(1); Y(1) <- Y(0); Y(0) <- 0; comment: f[T] and f'[T] denote the T-th words in the table f and f' ; X <- X ^ f[T]; Y <- Y ^ f'[T]; end The pseudo-code is reproduced exactly as given; however, note that in the case of cksum, A[i] represents a byte of the file, the words X and Y are treated as a single 32-bit value, and the tables f and f' are a single table containing 32-bit values. The referenced Sarwate article also discusses generating the table. FUTURE DIRECTIONS None. SEE ALSO None. COPYRIGHT Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2003 Edition, Standard for Information Technology -- Portable Operat- ing System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base Speci- fications Issue 6, Copyright (C) 2001-2003 by the Insti- tute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. In the event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online at http://www.open- group.org/unix/online.html . POSIX 2003 cksum(P) |